


Before The Comet

by HellsLittleLiar



Category: Mumintroll | Moomins Series - Tove Jansson, 楽しいムーミン一家 | Moomin (Anime 1990)
Genre: Adventure, Gen, Prequel, Prison
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-29
Updated: 2019-07-29
Packaged: 2020-07-26 17:08:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,819
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20030236
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HellsLittleLiar/pseuds/HellsLittleLiar
Summary: What did Snufkin do before he met Moomin and the others?





	Before The Comet

Snufkin loved the stars more than anything. He could spend hours and hours just lying back and gazing admiringly at them every night, if he never needed to sleep. In fact, sometimes he forgot to sleep at all as he was too caught up in the sky. 

He could name every constellation and knew exactly where they would be for each night of the year. He used the stars to tell the time and find directions and, occasionally, for divining. Although not too often, as he preferred to use his cards for that. Snufkin was far too reverent of the stars to ask for advice for his own petty, personal problems. 

Yet, Snufkin knew the stars inside and out, which was how he knew that one particular star had not appeared in the sky before. He had thought that it didn't belong, only that was rather silly of him - every star belonged in the sky. Where else would they go?

He thought perhaps it was his imagination, but it was there the next night and the night after and the night after that. By the time he finally reached a town, Snufkin was exhausted from checking the sky every night at different times to find out if it ever disappeared. It didn't.

A kindly old woman by the name of Mim insisted that he come to dinner at her house, as she loved visitors but never had any. Her daughter and all of her many grandchildren lived too far away to visit often. Snufkin agreed, delighted that he wouldn't have to find his own food for the day. He couldn't remember the last time he'd eaten inside, so he was sure he didn't manage to upkeep normal table etiquette, but Mim didn't seem to mind. Actually, Mim seemed rather happy about his lack of manners.

Mim seemed particularly overjoyed when Snufkin quite literally licked his plate clean after devouring his meal. He blushed as his stomach grumbled and Mim served him another large helping.

"Have you noticed a new star in the sky? It appeared a few days ago." Snufkin asked as they are their second dinner.

"Yes, dear. That's the comet." Mim explained. 

"What's a comet?"

"Comets are stars that travel around the sky. You can make wishes on them when they go past. Usually you only see them for a few seconds before they leave, so this one must be very special."

Snufkin stayed in Mim's spare bedroom that, for some reason, instead of one large bed there were lots of tiny beds that he had to push together to sleep on. He counted them to go to sleep, like counting sheep. He got to thirty two before sleep claimed him.

Snufkin left the next morning, with a backpack loaded down with food, an old flute that Mim no longer had use for and the knowledge that the beds were for Mim's thirty eight grandchildren. He thanked her gratefully, but all Mim asked in return was that he played the flute ocassionally and lick every plate of food clean. 

* * *

Several weeks later, Snufkin ran out of food and couldn't find any water to fish in. Luckily, he did find a whole field full of watermelons. There must have been hundreds! Surely, whoever owned it wouldn't miss just one. 

He was proven wrong when a very angry man ran out of the house at the other end of the field and started shouting and threatening him with the police. Well, Snufkin wasn't afraid of the police. He removed his mouth from the watermelon and scoffed to let the man know what he thought about his threats. 

The man went back inside and Snufkin watched curiously to see if he was actually going to fetch the police. The man came out again wearing a police officer's uniform and Snufkin realised he had been scoffing at a policeman. The policeman started to shout some nasty swear words and it's not good for you to hear so many bad words. Snufkin made another derisive scoffing noise and rolled the watermelon in front of him as he ran away. The police officer chased him down the road, huffing and panting and red in the face.

Eventually, after about an hour of being chased around, the policeman pounced on top of him slamming them both to the ground. He handcuffed Snufkin's paws behind his back and went to pick up the watermelon. Snufkin didn't think he needed the one watermelon back, as he had an entire field full of them. It was greedy. Snufkin waited until the policeman bent over to pick the watermelon up, before he kicked it out from underneath his hands. The policeman yelped and fell on his face. The watermelon rolled down the steep hill next to them, over a middy path and into a lake. It floated on the surface of the water and the policeman started running towards it when a large hawk swooped down and snatched it up.

Snufkin laughed as the policeman slouched back to him, out of breath and humiliated. He took Snufkin's shoulder and steered him towards the jail. Snufkin had never been arrested before but he had thought you were supposed to go to the police station to be interrogated first. Maybe the law was different when you committed a crime against a police officer. He didn't think that was fair. 

The policeman undid the handcuffs and shoved him into the jail cell. Snufkin landed on his hands and knees with an "oof". His paws and eyes stung. The policeman gave him a smug look, as though he had won a particularly difficult fight. Snufkin did his best not to laugh and he must have done a good job, because the policeman remained smug as he turned and left. 

Snufkin watched him go, making sure he closed the door behind him. The man in the jail cell across from him laughed cruelly and said in a harsh, gruff voice " Get used to your new home, kid, you're not getting outta here. Ever."

Snufkin hummed thoughtfully. "Seems like an overreaction for one watermelon. Never even got to eat it."

"Doesn't matter. If they got you here, they'll keep you here. I've been here for ten years now and they're not letting me go."

"What did they arrest you for?" Snufkin asked curiously.

"I stole from a police officer." The man sneered.

"I don't intend to stay here for my whole life, or ten years, or any other amount of time." Snufkin told him.

"You don't have a choice."

Snufkin thought his fellow inmate was a rather pessimistic person, and so decided the best course of action would be to ignore him. He pulled a tin-opener out of his backpack and began to dig at the floor of his cell. He sighed at the hard, slow work. This would take him hours.

The problem with escape tunnels was that Snufkin couldn't see where he was going, so he wasn't too surprised when he popped up inside the prison walls. The intimidating, gruff inmate that had spoken to him yelped in fright when Snufkin came up through the ground. He stuttered several questions that Snufkin didn't bother to answer.

"My apologies, wrong hole." Snufkin chirruped, before dropping back down into his tunnel and digging away. Next time he dug to the surface he managed to get outside the prison walls. Unfortunately, he was directly behind a prison guard walking his rounds.

Snufkin quickly ducked down and covered the hole with dirt again. Third time lucky, Snufkin dug up outside of the jail grounds without any guards of police nearby. He pulled himself out of the ground, put his tin-opener back into his backpack and wandered off towards a temptingly dark forest. It was probably full of dangerous beasts - how exciting!

* * *

He was so relieved to be free, he didn't notice the gruff thief struggling his way out of the tunnel and sending him a grateful glance. A watermelon dropped from a tall tree straight into the thief's hands, who was happy at the food although confused about its origin. Although upon closer inspection, he noticed a tiny bitemark obviously made by a small child with very sharp fangs. 

The thief threw back his head and laughed.

* * *

Snufkin walked through the forest for a fee hours before he decided he was a safe enough distance away to set up camp. He was happy to see a river he could fish in, although he did still really want to eat some watermelon. Fish would have to do. 

It was there, sat on the riverbed with his fishing rod in the water and his tent set up next to him, that two snorks came up and introduced themselves. Snorkmaiden and Snork. Snorkmaiden offered to cook dinner for him, if he'd share his fish with them. Of course, Snufkin agreed. He wasn't a greedy policeman who wouldn't share. 

They were both very nice, although Snorkmaiden did most of the talking. Snork mostly scribbled notes into a little journal. When Snufkin asked him about it, Snork told him he was making notes on the comet.

"Oh, you've noticed it too?"

"Of course! It's a most interesting scientific finding! I must document every aspect!"

"It's the only thing he's talked about for days." Snorkmaiden told Snufkin. "I wish we could have a conversation about absolutely anything else."

"Would you like me to tell you a story instead?" Snufkin offered. 

"Oh, yes please!" She agreed, and so Snufkin told them about the time he saved a prince from a pirate. 

Snorkmaiden seemed particularly entranced by the prince. She sighed dreamily over the thought of meeting him and dancing together. Snufkin almost felt bad that he had to tell her the prince, last time he'd seen him, had met a very lovely young man to marry. It had been a beautiful wedding. 

To soothe Snorkmaiden's disappointment, Snufkin offered to play her the first dance song. She accepted excitedly, so he pulled the flute out of his pocket and began to play. He much preferred his harmonica, but he had promised Mim he would use the flute after all. Snork and Snorkmaiden gave a round of applause at the end of the song, which caused Snufkin to blush.

The three of them spent a few days travelling together, going up into the mountains until Snufkin found a wonderful salt flat he wanted to set his tent up on. Snork and Snorkmaiden continued on into the mountains to find an observatory full of scientists who could tell them about the comet. Snufkin waved them off pleasantly and asked them to come find him when they finished to share what they found.

* * *

It was about a week before Snufkin saw a raft with two creatures sitting atop it. He waved them down excitedly, not knowing exactly how involved with the comet he was about to become. 

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this for Mune on tumblr. I know its a little short for having so many scenes but oh well lol
> 
> Let me know what you think! <3


End file.
